Shopify vs Amazon: the honest answer depends on one question
Most comparisons between Shopify and Amazon spend a lot of time on fees. Monthly costs, referral percentages, FBA charges, transaction rates. It’s useful information — but it’s the wrong starting point.
The real question has nothing to do with how much each platform costs per month. It’s this:
Do you want to borrow Amazon’s customers, or build your own?
Answer that honestly and the rest of the comparison becomes obvious.
If you choose Shopify, your SEO determines your traffic. Plug In SEO audits your store and fixes what’s missing — meta titles, schema, broken links, alt text.
Install Plug In SEO →Amazon gives you customers. Shopify gives you a business.
Amazon attracts over 2.5 billion monthly visitors. That number is real, and it sounds like an enormous advantage. For your first sale, it is. But here’s what that number doesn’t tell you: those visitors are Amazon’s customers — not yours.
When someone buys from you on Amazon, Amazon owns the relationship. You can’t email that customer. You can’t retarget them with ads. You can’t ask them to follow you somewhere. You fulfil the order, Amazon takes their cut, and the customer goes back to Amazon for their next purchase. If you stop selling on Amazon tomorrow, those customers don’t follow you anywhere.
On Shopify, every customer who buys from your store is your customer. You collect the email. You control the follow-up. You build the relationship. And your store — if you invest in SEO — starts earning Google traffic that compounds over time. A product page that ranks for the right keyword sends you visitors every month without you paying Amazon a percentage of each sale.
The difference is ownership. On Amazon, you’re a tenant. On Shopify, you own the building.
This distinction matters more to some merchants than others. If you want fast sales with minimal setup, Amazon’s marketplace traffic is a genuine shortcut. If you want to build a business you control — one where the traffic is yours, the customer data is yours, and the brand is yours — that’s Shopify.
Shopify vs Amazon, through the lens of ownership
Fees
Amazon: Referral fees range from 8–45% per sale depending on category, with most categories at 15%. Add $39.99/month for a Professional seller account. If you use FBA, add storage and fulfilment fees on top. Every sale costs you a percentage — forever.
Shopify: $39/month for the Basic plan ($29/month billed annually). Transaction fees decrease as you move up plans. You pay for the platform, not the sales. Sell 10 items or 10,000 — your platform cost stays the same.
Traffic
Amazon: Instant access to marketplace traffic. List a product and buyers can find it on day one — if your listing is good and the category isn’t too competitive.
Shopify: You bring your own traffic. Ads, social, email — and SEO. There’s no built-in audience. That’s the trade-off.
SEO and Google visibility
This is where the gap between the platforms is biggest — and the one most comparison posts ignore entirely.
On Amazon, you have no meaningful Google SEO. Your product pages can appear in Google results, but you can’t control the meta titles, the schema markup, the heading structure, or the internal linking. You’re at Amazon’s mercy. And more importantly: the traffic stays on Amazon.
On Shopify, you control everything. Meta titles and descriptions on every page. Schema markup so Google and AI engines understand your products. H1 and H2 structure that signals what each page is about. Internal links that connect your catalogue and pass relevance between pages. Site speed that affects how Google ranks you.
Every optimisation you make on a Shopify store is an asset. A product page with strong SEO earns traffic month after month. A blog post targeting the right keyword can rank for years. None of that exists on Amazon.
If you choose Shopify, your first SEO moves matter. Start with the homepage: check that your H1 is text (not your logo image), fix the meta title and description, and make sure the H2s contain your primary keywords. Then work through meta data across every product and collection page. See the complete Shopify SEO beginner guide for the full walkthrough. Plug In SEO audits your store and flags exactly what needs fixing — so you don’t have to find it manually.
Brand and customer relationships
Amazon: You can’t email your Amazon customers. You can’t retarget them. You can’t build a loyalty programme. Amazon’s terms of service prohibit direct contact with marketplace buyers outside the platform.
Shopify: Your customer list is yours. Email marketing, loyalty programmes, SMS, retargeting ads — all of it is available because you own the relationship.
Getting your first sale
Honesty matters here: Amazon is easier.
On Amazon, the traffic already exists. A well-listed product in a viable category can get its first sale without any marketing. On Shopify, you have to drive traffic yourself — through paid ads, social media, SEO, or word of mouth. That takes longer and costs more effort up front.
If your only goal is to make a sale this week, Amazon gets you there faster.
If your goal is to build a business you control, that short-term advantage disappears quickly. Because every sale you make on Amazon is a sale that reinforces Amazon’s platform, not yours.
Frequently asked questions about Shopify vs Amazon
Can I sell on both Amazon and Shopify at the same time?
Yes — and many merchants do. Using both platforms isn’t a contradiction. Amazon gives you marketplace visibility while you’re building your Shopify SEO. The risk is that merchants who plan to “use both” often end up optimising Amazon because it produces faster results, and Shopify SEO never gets the attention it needs. If you go the both-platforms route, set a deadline for when Shopify becomes your primary channel.
Which has lower fees — Amazon or Shopify?
Shopify, at any meaningful scale. Amazon charges a referral fee on every transaction — most categories at 15%, some higher — plus a monthly plan fee, which means your costs scale directly with your revenue. Shopify charges a flat monthly fee with lower transaction fees as you move up plans. For stores doing consistent volume, Shopify’s total cost is significantly lower per sale.
Is it harder to get your first sale on Shopify than Amazon?
Yes. Amazon has built-in marketplace traffic. Shopify requires you to bring your own. Your first Shopify sale usually comes from paid ads, social, or personal outreach — not organic Google traffic, which takes time to build. Factor this into your planning. Shopify SEO is a medium-term investment, not an immediate result.
Which is better for long-term business growth?
Shopify, for merchants who want to control their brand, their customer data, and their traffic. Amazon is a channel — a powerful one, but one where the rules, fees, and algorithms can change without notice and where you’re always building on someone else’s platform. Shopify is an owned asset. The traffic you build compounds. The customer relationships you develop are yours to keep.
What’s the first thing to do for SEO after setting up a Shopify store?
Start with the homepage. Check that your H1 is actual text, not your logo image — many Shopify themes use the logo as the H1 by default, which means Google sees a blank heading. Fix the meta title and description to describe your store in language your customers would search for. Then add keywords to your H2 headings. After the homepage is solid, work through meta data on every product and collection page. The Shopify SEO keyword research guide explains how to find the right terms to target.
If you choose Shopify, SEO is not optional
The decision to build on Shopify is a decision to own your traffic. Plug In SEO scans your entire store and flags every SEO issue — missing meta titles, broken links, empty alt text, schema problems — so you know exactly what to fix and where.
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